A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”

A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.

Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.

In her Monday order, Talwani said that the court was “not enjoining the federal government from regulating abortion and is not directing the federal government to fund elective abortions or any healthcare service not otherwise eligible for Medicaid coverage.” Instead, Talwani said that her decision would block the federal government from excluding groups like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements when they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in their legal challenge.

In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood had argued that they would be at risk of closing nearly 200 clinics in 24 states if they are cut off from Medicaid funds. They estimated this would result in more than 1 million patients losing care.

“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson in a statement on Monday. “This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.

The federal department of health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Previously, the department said it strongly disagreed with the judge’s initial order that allowed some Planned Parenthood members to receive Medicaid funding.

“States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care,” said the department’s communication director, Andrew Nixon. Doing so, he said, “undermines state flexibility” and “concerns about accountability.”

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pilot was arrested aboard a Delta Air Lines flight and federal agents took him into custody from the cockpit after the plane landed at San Francisco International Airport.

The pilot, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was arrested on charges relating to child sexual abuse material, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.

Passengers aboard the flight from Minneapolis to San Francisco on Saturday posted video online showing federal agents walking through the aisle of the plane.

A message left with Delta Air Lines on Monday was not immediately returned and authorities provided no other details about the arrest.

A Delta spokesperson on Sunday deferred comment to law enforcement.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance is hitting his home state on Monday to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border bill.

A crowd in neon green, orange, yellow and red hardhats and safety glasses gathered at the steel company Metallus Inc. in Canton, about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) from Cleveland, to await his visit.

The visit marks Vance’s second trip this month to sell the package, filled with a hodgepodge of conservative priorities that Republicans have dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as the vice president becomes its chief promoter on the road.

In West Pittston, Pennsylvania, Vance told attendees at an industrial machine shop that they should be able to keep more of their pay in their pockets, highlighting the law’s new tax deductions on overtime.

Vance also discussed a new children’s savings program called Trump Accounts and how the new law promotes energy extraction, while decrying Democrats for opposing the bill that keeps the current tax rates, which would have otherwise expired later this year.

The legislation cleared the GOP-controlled Congress by the narrowest of margins, with Vance breaking a tie vote in the Senate for the package that also sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars for Trump’s immigration agenda while slashing Medicaid and food stamps.

The vice president is also stepping up his public relations blitz on the bill as the White House tries to deflect attention away from the growing controversy over Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced financier killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death before Trump returned to the White House and are now reckoning with the consequences of a Justice Department announcement earlier this month that Epstein did indeed die by suicide and that no further documents about the case would be released.

A small group of protesters assembled outside the Metallus plant brandishing signs that spelled out “JD Protects Pedophiles” and indicating that “GOP” stands for “Guardians Of Pedophiles.” Signs also called the Big Beautiful Bill “ugly” and “bulls(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)t.”

Questions about the case continued to dog Trump in Scotland, where he on Sunday announced a framework trade deal with the European Union.

Asked about the timing of the trade announcement and the Epstein case and whether it was correlated, Trump responded: “You got to be kidding with that.”

“No, had nothing to do with it,” Trump told the reporter. “Only you would think that.”

The White House sees the new law as a clear political boon, sending Vance to promote it in swing congressional districts that will determine whether Republicans retain their House majority next year.

The northeastern Pennsylvania stop is in the district represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a first-term lawmaker who knocked off a six-time Democratic incumbent last fall.

On Monday, Vance will be in the district of Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes, who is a top target for the National Republican Congressional Committee this cycle.

A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called it “another desperate attempt to lie to Ohioans about the devastating impact the Big, Ugly Law will have on working families.” in a statement.

In the statement, Katie Smith said Sykes “fought tooth and nail against this disastrous law.”

Polls before the bill’s passage showed that it largely remained unpopular, although the public approves of some individual provisions such as increasing the child tax credit and allowing workers to deduct more of their tips on taxes.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday.

Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn’t have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated.

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” the immigration attorneys wrote. “This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.”

The lawsuit is the second one challenging “Alligator Alcatraz.” Environmental groups last month sued federal and state officials asking that the project built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades be halted because the process didn’t follow state and federal environmental laws.

Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Boeing Co. expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St. Louis-area plants that produce U.S. fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years.

The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11:59 p.m. Central time Sunday, but the union said a “cooling off” period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until Aug. 4.

Union leaders had recommended approving the offer, calling it a “landmark” agreement when it was announced last week. Organizers said then that the offer would improve medical, pension and overtime benefits in addition to pay.

The vote came two days before Boeing planned to announce its second quarter earnings, after saying earlier this month that it had delivered 150 commercial airliners and 36 military aircraft and helicopters during the quarter, up from 130 and 26 during the first quarter. Its stock closed Friday at $233.06 a share, up $1.79.

The union did not say specifically why members rejected the contract, only that it “fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices” of the union’s workers. Last fall, Boeing offered a general wage increase of 38% over four years to end a 53-day strike by 33,000 aircraft workers producing passenger aircraft.

“Our members are standing together to demand a contract that respects their work and ensures a secure future,” the union said in a statement.

Dan Gillan, general manager and senior Boeing executive in St. Louis, said in a statement that the company is “focused on preparing for a strike.” He described the proposal as “the richest contract offer” ever presented to the St. Louis union.

“No talks are scheduled with the union,” said Gillan, who is also vice president for Boeing Air Dominance, the division for the production of several military jets, including the U.S. Navy’s Super Hornet, as well as the Air Force’s Red Hawk training aircraft.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Part of the roof and front facade of a Family Dollar store in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed Sunday, killing a 68-year-old man and seriously injuring a 50-year-old woman, authorities said.

The building’s partial collapse occurred about 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the Kansas City Fire Department said. Two other people also were injured outside the building but were treated at the scene and refused further medical care, according to local television news reports.

Those television reports showed part of the roof and front facade missing at what appeared to be the main entrance of the store, with brick, stone and wood debris on the ground.

Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Hopkins said the man who died may have been walking by the building at the time. The woman who was seriously injured remained hospitalized.

KMBC-TV reported that a public inspection record said that someone reported Friday that the building had begun “slowly tilting.” Authorities did not yet have an explanation for the collapse.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in next year’s midterm election.

Dans told The Associated Press the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025. But he said there’s “more work to do,” particularly in the Senate.

“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans said in an AP interview. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”

Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”

Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot in what is fast becoming a crowded field ahead of the November 2026 midterm election that will determine control of Congress.

Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state’s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, to chair his 2026 run. He has amassed millions of dollars in his campaign account.

Other candidates, including Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer, a wealthy developer, and Democratic challenger Dr. Annie Andrews, have announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season, more than a year away.

Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did not discuss his reelection campaign but fielded questions on topics including his push to release “as much as you can” from the case files on Jeffrey Epstein, something many of Trump’s supporters want the government to do.

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump’s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.

After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.

“To be clear, I believe that there is a ‘deep state’ out there, and I’m the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,” Dans said, noting he compiled much of the book from his kitchen table in Charleston.

Among the goals, he said, was to “deconstruct the administrative state,” which he said is what the Trump administration has been doing, pointing in particular to former Trump adviser Elon Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency shuttering federal offices.

Dans and Heritage parted ways in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025. It catapulted into political culture that summer during the presidential campaign season, as Democrats and their allies showcased the hard-right policy proposals — from mass firings to budget cuts — as a dire warning of what could come in a second Trump term.

Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, and his campaign insisted it had nothing to do with his own “Agenda 47.”

Dans is launching his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by a kick-off event at a historic venue in Charleston.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near record highs Monday after the United States agreed to tax cars and other products coming from the European Union at a 15% rate, lower than President Donald Trump had earlier threatened. Many details are still to be worked out, however, and Wall Street is heading into a week full of potential flashpoints that could shake markets.

The S&P 500 added another 0.1% in early trading after setting an all-time high every day last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 19 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite is 0.3% higher, coming off its own record.

Stocks of U.S. companies that produce and move liquefied natural gas helped drive the market after the head of the European Commission said the bloc’s members would buy $750 billion of U.S. energy products over the next three years. That would help lessen Europe’s reliance on Russia for natural gas. Cheniere Energy climbed 4.2%, while NextDecade rose 3.4%.

Tesla added 0.2% after its CEO, Elon Musk, said it signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that could be worth more than $16.5 billion to provide chips for the electric-vehicle company. Samsung’s stock in South Korea jumped 6.8%.

Many more fireworks may be ahead this week. “This is about as busy as a week can get in the markets,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up and ready to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of all the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates. That includes market heavyweights Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Those companies have grown so huge that their stock movements can almost solely dictate what the overall S&P 500 index does. Microsoft alone is worth roughly $3.8 trillion,

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rates.

Trump has been loudly and angrily calling for the Fed to cut interest rates, a move that could help give the economy a boost. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been insisting that he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move. Lower interest rates also can give inflation more fuel, and the economy only recently came out of its scarring run where inflation briefly topped 9%.

The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump’s appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024.

This week will also feature several potentially market-moving updates about the economy. On Tuesday will come reports on how confident U.S. consumers are feeling and how many jobs openings U.S. employers were advertising. Wednesday will show the first estimate of how quickly the U.S. economy grew during the spring, and economists expect to see a slowdown from the first three months of the year.

On Thursday, the latest measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use will arrive. A modest reading could give the Fed more leeway to cut interest rates in the short term, while a hotter-than-expected figure could make it more cautious.

And Friday will bring an update on how many more workers U.S. employers hired during June than they fired.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market ahead of all that action. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was remaining at 4.40%, where it was late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, edged up to 3.92% from 3.91%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe amid mostly modest movements following the announcement of the trade deal’s framework.

Chinese stocks rose as officials from the world’s second-largest economy prepare to meet with a U.S. delegation in Sweden for trade talks. Stocks climbed 0.7% in Hong Kong and 0.1% in Shanghai.

Indexes were mixed across the rest of Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% for one of the world’s bigger losses. Doubts surfaced over what exactly last week’s trade truce between Japan and Trump entails, especially Japan’s $550 billion pledge of investment in the U.S.

Terms of the deal are still being negotiated, and nothing has been formalized in writing, said an official who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks. The official suggested the goal was for a $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump’s direction.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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In 2023, amid a national reckoning on issues of race in America, seven Army bases’ names were changed because they honored Confederate leaders.

Now, those same bases are reverting back to their original names, this time with different namesakes who share Confederate surnames — the Army found other service members with the same last names to honor.

The move is stirring up conversation in and outside military circles. Skeptics wonder if the true intention is to undermine efforts to move away from Confederate associations, an issue that has long split people who favor preserving an aspect of southern heritage and those who want slavery-supporting revels stripped of valor.

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, a civil rights group, said the latest renaming is a “difference without a distinction.”

The wiping away of names that were given by the Biden administration, many of which honored service members who were women or minorities, is the latest move by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to align with Trump’s purging of all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of the Army responded to emailed requests for comment.

Confederate names return

Federal law now bars the military from returning to honoring Confederates, but the move restores names know by generations of soldiers. Following the election of President Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the expansion of slavery, 11 southern states seceded from the United States to form the Confederacy, or the Confederate States of America, to preserve slavery an institution that enslaved millions of African Americans. Their secession led to the Civil War, which the Confederates ultimately lost in 1865.

By restoring the old names with soldiers or figures who were not Confederates, “they are trying to be slick,” Morial said.

For example, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which was changed to Fort Liberty by the Biden administration, was the first to have its original name restored, in June. The Army found another American service member with the same last name, a World War II soldier. Hegseth signed an order restoring the name in February.

“By instead invoking the name of World War II soldier Private Roland Bragg, Secretary Hegseth has not violated the letter of the law, but he has violated its spirit,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., wrote in a statement opposing the defense secretary’s “cynical maneuver.”

In March, Hegseth reversed the 2023 decision changing Fort Benning in Georgia to Fort Moore.

The same name restoring process applied to the additional seven bases: Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett and Fort Robert E. Lee in Virginia, Fort Gordon in Georgia, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Polk in Louisiana and Fort Rucker in Alabama.

Other name changes

Last week, Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced that he was restoring the name of the state’s largest National Guard training site.

In a social media post announcing the name, Landry wrote that in Louisiana, “we honor courage, not cancel it.” Attached was what seemed to be an AI-generated image of a headstone with the word “Wokeism” on it.

“Let this be a lesson that we should always give reverence to history and not be quick to so easily condemn or erase the dead, lest we and our times be judged arbitrary by future generations,” Landry wrote.

Bases aren’t the only military assets being renamed. In late June, Hegseth announced that the USNS Harvey Milk would be renamed after a World War II sailor who received the Medal of Honor, stripping the ship of the name of a killed gay rights activists who served during the Korean War.

Critics express concern over Confederate associations and inefficiency

Morial said there are other ways to recognize unsung heroes instead of returning a base to a name that has long been associated with Confederate leaders.

“No county on Earth would name its military based after people that tried to overthrow the government,” Morial said. “So, why are people holding on to these names?”

Stacy Rosenberg, associate teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, said she is concerned with the inefficiency of renaming bases. She said the cost of changing signages across seven bases could be used for something else that might have more impact.

There is no immediate cost estimate for changing all the signs at the bases.

Rosenberg said it made sense to move away from Confederate heroes as namesakes but that the latest move seems like a way to appeal to Trump’s political base.

“I think what we really need to consider is does whoever the base is named after have such a service record that warrants the honor of having their name associated with that base?” Rosenberg said.

Angela Betancourt, a public relations strategist at Betancourt Group and a United States Air Force Reservist said the ongoing renaming of military bases is a form of branding for what each administration views the military should represent.

While she understands why people are upset about military bases reverting to a name associated with the Confederacy, Betancourt said that should not take away from the new namesake’s heritage and legacy.

“It doesn’t mean it’s not a good thing to do,” Betancourt said. “There’s certainly heroes, especially African American and diverse heroes, that should be honored. I think this is a good way to do it.”

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The Associated Press reporters Lolita C. Baldor, John Hanna and Sara Cline contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Chris Seward, File

When Amrita Bhasin, 24, learned that products from South Korea might be subject to a new tax when they entered the United States, she decided to stock up on the sheet masks from Korean brands like U-Need and MediHeal she uses a few times a week.

“I did a recent haul to stockpile,” she said. “I bought 50 in bulk, which should last me a few months.”

South Korea is one of the countries that hopes to secure a trade deal before the Aug. 1 date President Donald Trump set for enforcing nation-specific tariffs. A not-insignificant slice of the U.S. population has skin in the game when it comes to Seoul avoiding a 25% duty on its exports.

Asian skin care has been a booming global business for a more than a decade, with consumers in Europe, North and South America, and increasingly the Middle East, snapping up creams, serums and balms from South Korea, Japan and China.

In the United States and elsewhere, Korean cosmetics, or K-beauty for short, have dominated the trend. A craze for all-in-one “BB creams” — a combination of moisturizer, foundation and sunscreen — morphed into a fascination with 10-step rituals and ingredients like snail mucin, heartleaf and rice water.

Vehicles and electronics may be South Korea’s top exports to the U.S. by value, but the country shipped more skin care and cosmetics to the U.S. than any other last year, according to data from market research company Euromonitor. France, with storied beauty brands like L’Oreal and Chanel, was second, Euromonitor said.

Statistics compiled by the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, show the U.S. imported $1.7 billion worth of South Korean cosmetics in 2024, a 54% increase from a year earlier.

“Korean beauty products not only add a lot of variety and choice for Americans, they really embraced them because they were offering something different for American consumers,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said.

Along with media offerings such as “Parasite” and “Squid Games,” and the popularity of K-pop bands like BTS, K-beauty has helped boost South Korea’s profile globally, she said.

“It’s all part and parcel really of the same thing,” Lovely said. “And it can’t be completely stopped by a 25% tariff, but it’s hard to see how it won’t influence how much is sold in the U.S. And I think what we’re hearing from producers is that it also really decreases the number of products they want to offer in this market.”

Senti Senti, a retailer that sells international beauty products at two New York boutiques and through an e-commerce site, saw a bit of “panic buying” by customers when Trump first imposed punitive tariffs on goods from specific countries, manager Winnie Zhong said.

The rush slowed down after the president paused the new duties for 90 days and hasn’t picked up again, Zhong said, even with Trump saying on July 7 that a 25% tax on imports from Japan and South Korea would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia subsequently reached agreements with the Trump administration that lowered the tariff rates their exported goods faced — in Japan’s case, from 25% to 15% — still higher than the current baseline of 10% tariff.

But South Korea has yet to clinch an agreement, despite having a free trade agreement since 2012 that allowed cosmetics and most other consumer goods to enter the U.S. tax-free.

Since the first store owned by Senti Senti opened 16 years ago, beauty products from Japan and South Korea became more of a focus and now account for 90% of the stock. The business hasn’t had to pass on any tariff-related costs to customers yet, but that won’t be possible if the products are subject to a 25% import tax, Zhong said.

“I’m not really sure where the direction of K-beauty will go to with the tariffs in place, because one of the things with K-beauty or Asian beauty is that it’s supposed to be accessible pricing,” she said.

Devoted fans of Asian cosmetics will often buy direct from Asia and wait weeks for their packages to arrive because the products typically cost less than they do in American stores. Rather than stocking up on their favorite sunscreens, lip tints and toners, some shoppers are taking a pause due to the tariff uncertainty.

Los Angeles resident Jen Chae, a content creator with over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, has explored Korean and Japanese beauty products and became personally intrigued by Chinese beauty brands over the last year.

When the tariffs were first announced, Chae temporarily paused ordering from sites such as YesStyle.com, a shopping platform owned by an e-commerce company based in Hong Kong. She did not know if she would have to pay customs duties on the products she bought or the ones brands sent to her as a creator.

“I wasn’t sure if those would automatically charge the entire package with a blanket tariff cost, or if it was just on certain items,” Chae said. On its website, YesStyle says it will give customers store credit to reimburse them for import charges.

At Ohlolly, an online store focused on Korean products, owners Sue Greene and Herra Namhie are taking a similar pause.

They purchase direct from South Korea and from licensed wholesalers in the U.S., and store their inventory in a warehouse in Ontario, California. After years of no duties, a 25% import tax would create a “huge increase in costs to us,” Namhie said.

She and Greene made two recent orders to replenish their stock when the tariffs were at 10%. But they have put further restocks on hold “because I don’t think we can handle 25%,” Namhie said. They’d have to raise prices, and then shoppers might go elsewhere.

The business owners and sisters are holding out on hope the U.S. and Korea settle on a lower tariff or carve out exceptions for smaller ticket items like beauty products. But they only have two to four months of inventory in their warehouse. They say that in a month they’ll have to make a decision on what products to order, what to discontinue and what prices will have to increase.

Rachel Weingarten, a former makeup artist who writes a daily beauty newsletter called “Hello Gorgeous!,” said while she’s devoted to K-beauty products like lip masks and toner pads, she doesn’t think stockpiling is a sound practice.

“Maybe one or two products, but natural oils, vulnerable packaging and expiration dates mean that your products could go rancid before you can get to them,” she said.

Weingarten said she’ll still buy Korean products if prices go up, but that the beauty world is bigger than one country. “I’d still indulge in my favorites, but am always looking for great products in general,” she said.

Bhasin, in Menlo Park, California, plans to keep buying her face masks too, even if the price goes up, because she likes the quality of Korean masks.

“If prices will go up, I will not shift to U.S. products,” she said. “For face masks, I feel there are not a ton of solid and reliable substitutes in the U.S.”

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AP audience engagement editor Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Marvel’s first family has finally found box office gold. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the first film about the superheroes made under the guidance of Kevin Feige and the Walt Disney Co., earned $118 million in its first weekend in 4,125 North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That makes it the fourth biggest opening of the year, behind “A Minecraft Movie,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “Superman,” and the biggest Marvel opening since “Deadpool & Wolverine” grossed $211 million out of the gate last summer. Internationally, “Fantastic Four” made $100 million from 52 territories, adding up to a $218 million worldwide debut. The numbers were within the range the studio was expecting.

The film arrived in the wake of another big superhero reboot, James Gunn’s “Superman,” which opened three weekends ago and has already crossed $500 million globally. That film, from the other main player in comic book films, DC Studios, took second place with $24.9 million domestically.

The box office success of “First Steps” and “Superman” means “the whole notion of superhero fatigue, which has been talked about a lot, can I think be put to rest. I always say it’s bad movie fatigue, not superhero fatigue,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore.

“First Steps” is the latest attempt at bringing the superhuman family to the big screen, following lackluster performances for other versions. The film, based on the original Marvel comics, is set during the 1960s in a retro-futuristic world led by the Fantastic Four, a family of astronauts-turned-superhuman from exposure to cosmic rays during a space mission.

The family is made up of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), who can stretch his body to incredible lengths; Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), who can render herself invisible; Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), who transforms into a fiery human torch; and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who possesses tremendous superhuman strength with his stone-like flesh.

The movie takes place four years after the family gained powers, during which Reed’s inventions have transformed technology, and Sue’s diplomacy has led to global peace.

Both audiences and critics responded positively to the film, which currently has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and promising exit poll responses from opening weekend ticket buyers. An estimated 46% of audiences chose to see it on premium screens, including IMAX and other large formats.

The once towering Marvel is working to rebuild audience enthusiasm for its films and characters. Its two previous offerings this year did not reach the cosmic box office heights of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which made over $1.3 billion, or those of the “Avengers”-era. But critically, the films have been on an upswing since the poorly reviewed “Captain America: Brave New World,” which ultimately grossed $415 million worldwide. “Thunderbolts,” which jumpstarted the summer movie season, was better received critically but financially is capping out at just over $382 million globally.

Like Deadpool and Wolverine, the Fantastic Four characters had been under the banner of 20th Century Fox for years. The studio produced two critically loathed, but decently profitable attempts in the mid-2000s with future Captain America Chris Evans as the Human Torch. In 2015, it tried again (unsuccessfully) with Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller. They got another chance after Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019.

The “Fantastic Four’s” opening weekend results were a little less than some rival studio projections, Dergarabedian said. Nonetheless, the film is expected to carry movie theater earnings well into August.

Holdovers dominated the top 10, but one other newcomer managed to make the chart. The dark romantic comedy “Oh, Hi!” earned $1.1 million from 866 screens.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” landed in third place in its fourth weekend with $13 million, followed by “F1” with $6.2 million. The Brad Pitt racing movie also passed $500 million globally. “Smurfs” rounded out the top five with $5.4 million in its second weekend.

The box office is currently up over 12% from last year.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” $118 million.

2. “Superman,” $24.9 million.

3. “Jurassic World Rebirth,” $13 million.

4. “F1: The Movie,” $6.2 million.

5. “Smurfs,” $5.4 million.

6. “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” $5.1 million.

7. “How to Train Your Dragon,” $2.8 million.

8. “Eddington,” $1.7 million.

9. “Saiyaara,” $1.3 million.

10. “Oh, Hi!,” $1.1 million.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Marvel/Disney via AP)

The Trump administration’s decision to impose a 17% duty on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico has created a dilemma for the country providing more tomatoes to U.S. consumers than any other.

The import tax that began July 14 is just the latest protectionist move by an administration that has threatened dozens of countries with tariffs, including its critical trading partner Mexico. It comes as the Mexican government tries to also negotiate its way out of a 30% general tariff scheduled to take effect Aug. 1.

While the impacts of the tomato tariff are still in their infancy, a major grower and exporter in central Mexico shows how a tariff targeting a single product can destabilize the sector.

Surviving in times of uncertainty

Green tomato plants stretch upward row after row in sprawling high-tech greenhouses covering nearly six acres in the central state of Queretaro, among the top 10 tomato producing states in Mexico.

Climate controlled and pest free, Veggie Prime’s greenhouses in Ajuchitlan send some 100 tons of fresh tomatoes every week to Mastronardi Produce. The Canadian company is the leading distributor of fresh tomatoes in the U.S. with clients that include Costco and Walmart.

Moisés Atri, Veggie Prime’s export director, says they’ve been exporting tomatoes to the U.S. for 13 years and their substantial investment and the cost to produce their tomatoes won’t allow them to make any immediate changes. They’re also contractually obligated to sell everything they produce to Mastronardi until 2026.

“None of us (producers) can afford it,” Atri said. “We have to approach our client to adjust the prices because we’re nowhere near making that kind of profit.”

In the tariff’s first week, Veggie Prime ate the entire charge. In the second, its share of the new cost lowered when its client agreed to increase the price of their tomatoes by 10%. The 56-year-old Atri hopes that Mastronardi will eventually pass all of the tariff’s cost onto its retail clients.

Mexican tomato exports brought in $3 billion last year

Experts say the tariff could cause a 5% to 10% drop in tomato exports, which last year amounted to more than $3 billion for Mexico.

The Mexican Association of Tomato Producers says the industry generates some 500,000 jobs.

Juan Carlos Anaya, director general of the consulting firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas, said a drop in tomato exports, which last year amounted to more than 2 billion tons, could lead to the loss of some 200,000 jobs

Experts: U.S. will have difficulty replacing fresh Mexican tomatoes

When the Trump administration announced the tariff, the Commerce Department justified it as a measure to protect U.S. producers from artificially cheap Mexican imports.

California and Florida growers that produce about 11 million tons would stand to benefit most, though most of that production is for processed tomatoes. Experts believe the U.S. would find it difficult to replace Mexico’s fresh tomato imports.

Atri and other producers are waiting for a scheduled review of the measure in two months, when the U.S. heads into fall and fresh tomato production there begins to decline.

In reaction to the tariff, the Mexican government has floated the idea of looking for other, more stable, international markets.

Mexican Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said Thursday that the government is looking at possibilities like Japan, but producers quickly cast doubt on that idea, noting the tomatoes would have to be sent by plane, raising the cost even more.

Atri said the company is starting to experiment with peppers, to see if they would provide an option at scale.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said recently her administration would survey tomato growers to figure out what support they need, especially small producers who are already feeling the effects of a drop of more than 10% in the price of tomatoes domestically over fears there will be a glut in Mexico.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Boeing Co. expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St. Louis-area plants that produce U.S. fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years.

The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11:59 p.m. Central time Sunday, but the union said a “cooling off” period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until Aug. 4.

Union leaders had recommended approving the offer, calling it a “landmark” agreement when it was announced last week. Organizers said then that the offer would improve medical, pension and overtime benefits in addition to pay.

The vote came two days before Boeing planned to announce its second quarter earnings, after saying earlier this month that it had delivered 150 commercial airliners and 36 military aircraft and helicopters during the quarter, up from 130 and 26 during the first quarter. Its stock closed Friday at $233.06 a share, up $1.79.

The union did not say specifically why members rejected the contract, only that it “fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices” of the union’s workers. Last fall, Boeing offered a general wage increase of 38% over four years to end a 53-day strike by 33,000 aircraft workers producing passenger aircraft.

“Our members are standing together to demand a contract that respects their work and ensures a secure future,” the union said in a statement.

Dan Gillan, general manager and senior Boeing executive in St. Louis, said in a statement that the company is “focused on preparing for a strike.” He described the proposal as “the richest contract offer” ever presented to the St. Louis union.

“No talks are scheduled with the union,” said Gillan, who is also vice president for Boeing Air Dominance, the division for the production of several military jets, including the U.S. Navy’s Super Hornet, as well as the Air Force’s Red Hawk training aircraft.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Ted Aljibe—AFP via Getty Images

Hackers gained access to personal data on the majority of the 1.4 million customers of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, the company confirmed Saturday.

Minneapolis-based Allianz Life, a subsidiary of Munich, Germany-based Allianz SE, said the data breach happened on July 16 when a “malicious threat actor” gained access to a third-party, cloud-based system used by the company.

“The threat actor was able to obtain personally identifiable data related to the majority of Allianz Life’s customers, financial professionals, and select Allianz Life employees, using a social engineering technique,” Allianz Life said in a statement. “We took immediate action to contain and mitigate the issue and notified the FBI.”

The company said its own systems were not accessed, just the third-party’s platform.

Allianz Life said its investigation is ongoing and that the company has begun reaching out to the impacted individuals. It said the incident involves only Allianz Life in the U.S., not other Allianz corporate entities.

In the case of data breaches, a “social engineering technique” usually involves using trickery to gain access. Spokesman Brett Weinberg said he couldn’t provide details because they are still investigating.

Allianz Life also reported the breach to multiple other authorities, including the Maine Attorney General’s Office. A filing on the agency’s website said the company discovered the breach the day after it happened, and that it will be offering those affected 24 months of identity theft protection and credit monitoring.

Allianz Life was known as North American Life and Casualty until it was acquired by German conglomerate Allianz SE in 1979 and changed its name to Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. It has nearly 2,000 employees in U.S., with the majority working in Minnesota, according to its website.

It is one of five North American subsidiaries of the Munich-based global financial services group Allianz SE, which says it serves more than 125 million customers worldwide.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Allianz Life Insurance Company via AP

Tea, a provocative dating app designed to let women anonymously ask or warn each other about men they’d encountered, rocketed to the top spot on the U.S. Apple App Store this week. On Friday, the company behind the app confirmed it had been hacked: Thousands of images, including selfies, were leaked online.

“We have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure our systems,” San Francisco-based Tea Dating Advice Inc. said in a statement.

404 Media, which earlier reported the breach, said it was 4Chan users who discovered an exposed database that “allowed anyone to access the material” from Tea.

The app and the breach highlight the fraught nature of seeking romance in the age of social media.

Here’s what to know:

Tea was meant to help women date safely

Tea founder Sean Cook, a software engineer who previously worked at Salesforce and Shutterfly, says on the app’s website that he founded the company in 2022 after witnessing his own mother’s “terrifying” experiences. Cook said they included unknowingly dating men with criminal records and being ”catfished” — deceived by men using false identities.

Tea markets itself as a safe way for women to anonymously vet men they might meet on dating apps such as Tinder or Bumble— ensuring that the men are who they say they are, not criminals and not already married or in a relationship. “It’s like people have their own little Yelp pages,” said Aaron Minc, whose Cleveland firm, Minc Law, specializes in cases involving online defamation and harassment.

In an Apple Store review, one woman wrote that she used a Tea search to investigate a man she’d begun talking to and discovered “over 20 red flags, including serious allegations like assault and recording women without their consent.” She said she cut off communication. ”I can’t imagine how things could’ve gone had I not known,” she wrote.

A surge in social media attention over the past week pushed Tea to the No. 1 spot on Apple’s U.S. App Store as of July 24, according to Sensor Tower, a research firm. In the seven days from July 17-23, Tea downloads shot up 525% compared to the week before. Tea said in an Instagram post that it had reached 4 million users.

Tea has been criticized for invading men’s privacy

A female columnist for The Times of London newspaper, who signed into the app, on Thursday called Tea a “man-shaming site” and complained that ”this is simply vigilante justice, entirely reliant on the scruples of anonymous women. With Tea on the scene, what man would ever dare date a woman again?”

“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve gotten hundreds of calls on it. It’s blown up,” attorney Minc said. “People are upset. They’re getting named. They’re getting shamed.’’

In 1996, Congress passed legislation protecting websites and apps from liability for things posted by their users. But the users can be sued for spreading ”false and defamatory” information, Minc said.

In May, however, a federal judge in Illinois threw out an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit by a man who’d been criticized by women in the Facebook chat group “Are We Dating the Same Guy,″ Bloomberg Law reported.

State privacy laws could offer another avenue for bringing legal action against someone who posted your photograph or other personal information in a harmful way, Minc said.

The breach exposed thousands of selfies and photo IDs

In its statement, Tea reported that about 72,000 images were leaked online, including 13,000 images of selfies or photo identification that users submitted during account verification. Another 59,000 images that were publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages were also accessed, according to the company’s statement.

No email addresses or phone numbers were exposed, the company said, and the breach only affects users who signed up before February 2024. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected. Protecting tea users’ privacy and data is our highest priority,” Tea said.

It said users did not need to change their passwords or delete their accounts. “All data has been secured.”

Lawyer Minc said he was not surprised to see Tea get targeted. “These sites get attacked,” he said. ”They create enemies. They put targets on themselves where people want to go after them.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo

A Southwest Airlines jet heading to Las Vegas from Southern California took a dramatic plunge shortly after takeoff Friday in response to an alert about a nearby plane, sending some passengers flying out of their seats and injuring two flight attendants.

The plane suddenly jolted shortly after takeover then felt like it was falling, said Stef Zamorano, who was flying to Las Vegas with her husband to celebrate his birthday.

In front of her, Zamorano saw a woman who wasn’t wearing her seat belt shoot up and out of her seat, her long hair flying in a tangled mess. The man seated next to her was clutching her arm, and she said the woman across the aisle was panicking.

“She was pretty much verbalizing how we all felt, saying, ‘I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground,’ ” Zamorano told The Associated Press.

Data from the flight tracking site FlightAware shows it dropped roughly 300 feet (91.44 meters) in 36 seconds.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the flight, Southwest 1496, was responding to an onboard alert about another aircraft in its vicinity. The FAA is investigating. Southwest said the crew responded to two alerts that required the pilot to climb then descend. The flight departed from Hollywood Burbank Airport just before noon.

Still in shock, Zamorano said she could hardly make out what the pilot was saying when he later addressed the passengers.

Another passenger, comedian Jimmy Dore, posted on X that the pilot mentioned a near miss.

“Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us,” Dore posted.

The plane was in the same airspace near Burbank as a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58 just after noon local time, FlightAware shows. A Hawker Hunter is a British fighter plane. Records show it is owned by Hawker Hunter Aviation, a British defense contracting company. The company didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Mike Christensen, an airport spokesman for Hollywood Burbank, said that neither the control tower nor the operations department, which tracks planes departing and arriving, have any record of the Southwest flight plunging in their airspace.

Southwest said the flight continued to Las Vegas, “where it landed uneventfully.” The airline said that it is working with the FAA “to further understand the circumstances” of the event.

This close call is just the latest incident to raise questions about aviation safety in the wake of January’s midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Jae C. Hong—AP Photo

With this week’s FCC approval, the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media is expected to be completed in the coming weeks at a value of $8 billion. The question for the new company is whether the psychic cost is much higher.

It has been a particularly rough few months at Paramount-owned CBS, where the settlement of a lawsuit regarding “60 Minutes” and announced end of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show has led critics to suggest corporate leaders were bowing to President Donald Trump.

Following the Federal Communications Commission approval Thursday, one of the triumvirate of current Paramount leaders, Chris McCarthy, said that he would be leaving the company. McCarthy has been in charge of fading cable properties like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, expected to bear the brunt of an estimated $2 billion in cost cuts identified by Skydance leaders.

Skydance head David Ellison is expected to head the new company, and he has identified former NBC Universal executive Jeff Shell as the incoming president.

CBS News’ trajectory will be scrutinized

After the merger’s Aug. 7 closing date, the new leaders will be watched most closely for how they deal with CBS News, particularly given the $16 million paid in a settlement of Trump’s complaint that last fall’s “60 Minutes” interview was edited to make opponent Kamala Harris look good. Two news executives — News CEO Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens — resigned due to their opposition to the deal.

The appointment of respected insider Tanya Simon to replace Owens this week was seen as a positive sign by people at “60 Minutes.”

Days before the FCC’s vote, Paramount agreed to hire an ombudsman at CBS News with the mission of investigating complaints of political bias. “In all respects, Skydance will ensure that CBS’s reporting is fair, unbiased, and fact-based,” Skydance said in a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

The role of an ombudsman, or public editor, who examines a news outlet’s work is often positive — if they are given independence, said Kelly McBride, an ethics expert who has had that role at NPR for five years. “You really want the person to have loyalty only to their own judgment and the journalistic mission of the organization,” she said.

Having the sole mission of examining bias could be problematic, however. To be fair, a journalist’s work should be closely studied before making that determination, not judged on the basis of one report or passage, she said.

Carr, in an interview with CNBC on Friday, said the role “should go a long way toward restoring America’s trust in media.” Anna Gomez, an FCC commissioner who voted to reject the deal on Thursday, interpreted the arrangement as a way for the government to control journalists.

“They want the news media to report on them in a positive light or in the light that they want,” Gomez told MSNBC. “So they don’t want the media to do their job, which is to hold government to account without fear or favor.”

How the merger could ripple out across Paramount properties

According to published reports, Ellison has explored purchasing The Free Press, a flourishing news site founded by Bari Weiss perhaps best known for a former NPR editor’s study of liberal bias in public broadcasting. An Ellison spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment on Friday.

Colbert’s slow-motion firing — he’ll work until the end of his contract next May — was described by CBS as a financial decision given late-night television’s collapsing economics. Colbert’s relentless lampooning of Trump, and his criticism of the “60 Minutes” settlement, led to suspicion of those motives.

“Was this really financial?” comic Jon Stewart wondered. “Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger was killing a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president?”

Stewart’s profane criticism on his own Paramount-owned show may provide its own test for Skydance. “The Daily Show” is one of the few original programs left on Comedy Central, and his contract ends later this year.

In an odd way, Comedy Central’s “South Park” buttresses CBS’ claim that the Colbert decision was financial, not political. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone delivered an episode this week that depicted a naked Trump in bed with the devil. Paramount just signed Parker and Stone to a new $1.5 billion deal that Skydance executives surely cleared; it makes the entire “South Park” library available for streaming on Paramount+. a platform where Colbert’s show doesn’t do nearly as well.

Figuring out what to do with others at Paramount’s cable networks, or even the networks as a whole, will be an early decision for Ellison, son of multibillionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

“There is a clear opportunity to improve Paramount’s growth profile by letting those assets go,” analyst Doug Creutz of TD Securities told investors Friday. “On the other hand, we suspect the Ellisons did not purchase Paramount in order to break it up for parts.”

The merger also brings together the Paramount movie studio with one of its most regular partners. David Ellison has been one of the industry’s top investors and producers since founding Skydance in 2006.

Ellison has a challenge here, too: Years of uncertainty over its future and modest investment in its movie pipeline has shrunk Paramount’s market share to last among the major studios. The Paramount+ streaming service has been a money-loser.

To revive Paramount, Ellison will look to revamp its streaming operations, leverage its franchises and try to bolster family content.

___

AP Film Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via AP

Stocks climbed to more records on Wall Street. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Friday, setting an all-time high for the fifth time this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2% to its own record set the day before. Deckers helped lead the way with a gain of 11.3%. The company behind Ugg boots and Hoka shoes reported stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected. That helped offset a sharp drop for Intel, which sank 8.5% after saying it would cut thousands of jobs as it tries to turn around its struggling fortunes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising toward more records on Friday and coasting toward the close of another winning week.

The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in late trading and on track to close at an all-time high every day of this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 221 points, or 0.5%, with less than an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.4% to its own record set the day before.

Deckers, the company behind Ugg boots and Hoka shoes, jumped 12.3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. Its growth was particularly strong outside the United States, where revenue soared nearly 50%.

Edwards Lifesciences rose 4.3% after likewise topping Wall Street’s expectations for profit in the latest quarter. It said it saw strength across all its product groups, and it expects profit for the full year to come in at the high end of the forecasted range it had given earlier.

They helped offset a drop of 9.3% for Intel, which fell after reporting a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts were looking for a profit. The struggling chipmaker also said it would cut thousands of jobs and eliminate other expenses as it tries to turn around its fortunes. Intel, which helped launch Silicon Valley as the U.S. technology hub, has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices while demand for artificial intelligence chips soars.

The pressure is on companies to deliver solid growth in profits in order to justify the rallies in their stock prices to record after record in recent weeks. Wall Street has zoomed higher on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. Trump has recently announced deals with Japan and the Philippines, and the next big deadline is looming on Friday, Aug. 1.

Besides potential trade talks, next week will also feature a meeting by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. Trump again on Thursday lobbied the Fed to cut rates, which he has implied could save the U.S. government money on its debt repayments.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though, has continued to insist he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move. Lower interest rates can help goose the economy, but they can also give inflation more fuel.

Lower rates also may not lower the U.S. government’s costs to borrow money, if the bond market feels they could send inflation higher in the future. In that case, lower short-term rates brought by the Fed could actually have the opposite effect and raise the interest rates that Washington must pay to borrow money over the long term.

The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following Trump’s latest attempt to push Powell to cut interest rates. Trump also seemed to back off on threats to fire the Fed’s chair.

“To do that is a big move, and I don’t think that’s necessary,” Trump said. “I just want to see one thing happen, very simple: Interest rates come down.”

If Trump fired Powell, he’d risk freaking out financial markets by raising the possibility of a less independent Fed, one unable to make unpopular choices necessary to keep the economy healthy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.38% from 4.43% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do, held steady at 3.91%, where it was late Thursday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slipped across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks fell 1.1% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will meet with Chinese officials in Sweden next week to work toward a trade deal with Beijing ahead of an Aug. 12 deadline. Trump has said a China trip “is not too distant” as trade tensions ease.

___

AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Richard Drew

Australia announced it will reduce restrictions on U.S. beef imports in a move U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration claimed as a major victory over “non-scientific trade barriers.”

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said Thursday that relaxing the restrictions designed to keep Australia free of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, would not compromise biosecurity.

“Australia stands for open and free trade — our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this,” Collins said in a statement.

Trump celebrated the announcement with a post on Truth Social that said: “Now, we are going to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable and irrefutable Proof that U.S. Beef is the Safest and Best in the entire World.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins responded to Australia’s announcement by congratulating Trump on a “major trade breakthrough that gives greater access to U.S. beef producers selling to Australia.”

“This is yet another example of the kind of market access the President negotiates to bring America into a new golden age of prosperity, with American agriculture leading the way,” she said in a statement.

Australia has allowed imports of beef grown in the United States since 2019. But Australia has not allowed imports from the U.S. of beef sourced from Canada or Mexico because of the disease risk.

But the U.S. has recently introduced additional movement controls that identify and trace all cattle from Mexico and Canada to their farms of origin.

US cattle import controls satisfy Australian authorities

Australian authorities were “satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the U.S. effectively manage biosecurity risks,” Collins said.

The timing of the new, reduced restrictions has not been finalized.

Trump attacked Australian import restrictions on U.S. beef when he announced in April that tariffs of at least 10% would be placed on Australian imports, with steel and aluminum facing a 50% tariff.

“Australia bans — and they’re wonderful people, and wonderful everything — but they ban American beef,” Trump told reporters then.

“Yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone. They won’t take any of our beef. They don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers and, you know, I don’t blame them, but we’re doing the same thing right now,” Trump added.

Lawmaker fears appeasing Trump endangers Australian cattle industry

Opposition lawmaker David Littleproud suspected the government was endangering Australia’s cattle industry to appease Trump.

“I want to see the science and it should be predicated on science. I’m suspicious of the speed at which this has been done,” Littleproud told reporters.

“We need to give confidence to the industry, but also to you (the public): this is not just about animal welfare, this is about human welfare, this is about BSE potentially coming into this country and having a human impact, so I think it’s important the government’s very transparent about the science and I don’t think it’s even beyond the question to have an independent panel review that science to give confidence to everybody,” he added.

Around 70% of Australian beef is exported. Producers fear that the export market would vanish overnight if diseases, including mad cow or foot-and-mouth disease, infected Australian cattle.

Will Evans, chief executive of Cattle Australia, who represents more than 52,000 grass-fed beef producers across the nation, said he was confident the agriculture department had taken a cautious approach toward U.S. imports.

“The department’s undertaken a technical scientific assessment and we have to put faith in them. They’ve made this assessment themselves. They’ve said: ‘We’ve looked at this, we’ve looked at the best science, this is a decision that we feel comfortable with,’” Evans said.

“When you have a $75 billion (Australian $50 billion) industry relying on them not making this mistake, I’m sure they’ve been very cautious in their decision-making,” he added.

US beef prices rise because of drought and a domestic cattle shortage

Beef prices have been rising in the U.S. due to factors that include drought and shrinking domestic herd numbers.

The average price of a pound of ground beef in the U.S. rose to $6.12 in June, up nearly 12% from a year ago, according to U.S. government data. The average price of all uncooked beef steaks rose 8% to $11.49 per pound.

Australian demand for U.S. beef is likely to remain low for reasons including a relatively weak Australian dollar.

Australia’s opposition to any U.S. tariffs will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese secures his first face-to-face meeting with Trump.

Albanese and Trump were to hold a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in Canada last month, but the U.S. president left early.

Albanese expects the pair will meet this year, although no date has been announced.

The two countries have had a bilateral free trade deal for 20 years, and the U.S. has maintained a trade surplus with Australia for decades.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Federal regulators on Thursday approved Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance, clearing the way to close a deal that combined Hollywood glitz with political intrigue.

The stamp of approval from the Federal Communications Commission comes after months of turmoil revolving around President Donald Trump’s legal battle with “60 Minutes,” the crown jewel of Paramount-owned broadcast network CBS. With the specter of the Trump administration potentially blocking the hard-fought deal with Skydance, Paramount earlier this month agreed to pay a $16 million settlement with the president.

Critics of the settlement lambasted it as a veiled bribe to appease Trump, amid rising alarm over editorial independence overall. Further outrage also emerged after CBS said it was canceling Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” just days after the comedian sharply criticized the parent company’s settlement on air. Paramount cited financial reasons, but big names both within and outside the company have questioned those motives.

In a statement accompanying the deal’s approval, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr hailed the merger as an opportunity to bring more balance to “once-storied” CBS.

“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,” Carr said.

While seeking approval, Skydance management assured regulators that it will carefully watch for any perceived biased at CBS News and hire an ombudsman to review any complaints about fairness. In a Tuesday filing, the company’s general counsel maintained that New Paramount will embody “a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum” — and also noted that it plans to take a “comprehensive review” of CBS to make “any necessary changes.”

The FCC approved the merger by a 2-1 vote, and the regulator who opposed it expressed disdain for how it all came together.

“After months of cowardly capitulation to this administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted,” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.” Gomez was appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Paramount and Skydance have said they wanted to seal the deal by this September, and now appear to be on a path to make it happen by then, if not sooner.

Over the past year the merger has periodically looked like it might fall apart as the two sides haggled over terms. But the two companies finally struck an accord that valued the combined company at $28 billion, with a consortium led by the family of Skydance founder David Ellison and RedBird Capital agreeing to invest $8 billion.

Signaling a shakeup would accompany the changing of the guard, Ellison stressed the need to transition into a “tech hybrid” to stay competitive in today’s entertainment landscape. That includes plans to “rebuild” the Paramount+ streaming service, among wider efforts to expand direct-to-consumer offerings in a world with more entertainment options and shorter attention spans.

Ellison, who is poised to become CEO of the restructured Paramount, is the son of Larry Ellison, technology titan and co-founder of Oracle. Besides possessing an estimated $288 billion fortune, Larry Ellison has been described as a friend by Trump.

While Paramount sweated out regulatory approval of the merger, one of TV’s best-known and longest-running programs turned into a political hot potato when Trump sued CBS over the handling of a “60 Minutes” interview with his Democratic Party opponent in last year’s presidential election, Kamala Harris. Trump accused “60 Minutes” of editing the interview in a deceptive way designed to help Harris win the election. After initially demanding $10 billion in damages, Trump upped the ante to $20 billion while asserting he had suffered “mental anguish.”

The case quickly became a closely-watched test of whether a corporation would back its journalists and stand up to Trump. Editing for brevity’s sake is commonplace in TV journalism and CBS argued Trump’s claims had no merit. But reports of company executives exploring a potential settlement with Trump later piled up, particularly after Carr — appointed to lead the FCC by Trump — launched an investigation earlier this year.

By the start of July, Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million. The company said the money would go to Trump’s future presidential library and to pay his legal fees, but maintained that it was not apologizing or expressing regret for the story.

The settlement triggered an outcry among critics who pilloried Paramount for backing down from the legal fight to increase the chances of closing the Skydance deal. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, said that the deal “could be bribery in plain sight” — and called for an investigation and new rules to restrict donations to presidential libraries.

Concerns about editorial independence at CBS had piled up even in the months before the deal was announced — with Paramount overseeing “60 Minutes” stories in new ways, as well as journalists at the network expressing frustrations about the changes on an award-winning program that has been a weekly staple for nearly 57 years

In April, then-executive producer of “60 Minutes” Bill Owens resigned — noting that it had “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it.” Another domino fell in May when CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon also stepped down, citing disagreements with the company “on the path forward,” amid speculation of Paramount nearing a settlement with Trump. CBS has since appointed Tanya Simon as the top producer at “60 Minutes” — elevating a respected insider in a move that could be viewed as a way to calm nerves leading up to the changes that Skydance’s Ellison is expected to make.

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Liedtke reported from San Francisco.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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